pelosi that says we should be talking about people that make over a million dollars. the point was made even if we were talking about people who made a million or better, the republicans wouldn't agree with that. with that to the side, where do you stand? >> well, i stand with the president. i think it makes a lot of sense to go straight at the middle class. i recognize that there are people above that who would be very glad to have some further tax cut but they've already had a great deal more than the middle class. but i think you should understand what this means and i think the public should understand. when they see democrats coming forward, some differing with others, that's the big tent that we need in the congress. if you have what we have with the republicans that people fear to be a part of a party except one that speaks with one voice you get the kind of polarization

we have on the hill. when you see people who are democrats, and this is the big tent we always were, with differing views, that's the kind of congress the public wants. and out of that congress would come something other than polarization and deadlock. so i'm very pleased to have the more conservative members of congress. i wish there were more of them because then we'd have a majority step forward because when we had a majority with conservative members of congress we always could get to some happy medium. we can't do that with the republicans because they all stand flat footed against the middle class because they don't ever want any tax cut of any kind. so let them get out there and keep saying that. >> let me give you some of the response from republicans within the past hour. congressman tom price. he said the house would pass legislation before the end of july to preserve the bush tax cuts for another year. senator mitch mcconnell in his statement saying, today's proposal, referring to the

president's, is clearly based on political calculus, not an economic one. in the obama politics we need policies designed to create jobs not designed to protect his. as you see they're saying this is all about the president trying to win re-election here. >> well, let me tell you two reasons why i think the president was right to come out. right again with what he said before, one, we see a slowdown that really emanates from off shore. it emanates from china even, from europe where we're afraid that they'll pull us down with them. by coming forward now to say, give the middle income people of our country a tax cut, the president is saying to them, you will be able to have some money to spend. by the way, look at what that does for the middle class. it creates some certainty. the entrepreneurial class is not the only people who need certainty.

they need certainty, of course, but who needs certainty more than anyone else? as i speak, it's the middle class because they've stopped spending. they've seen no response from congress to what is happening in europe and china and i believe that could cross the shore. the president is giving them an immediate sense of certainty and of remedy if the republicans would only come for that part of the tax cut where 100% of the congress is for, and that's the 250,000. you have great division when it comes to people who go above that because that gets to the upper middle class and even beyond. >> representative eleanor holmes norton, thank you so much for your time. let me bring in our panel today, keith boykon, and chip sals man, republican strategies. former mike huckabee campaign manager. chip, let me start off with you here. you you heard the president say slowest job growth in half a century. 98% of americans would benefit

from a tax cut here. regarding small businesses, so many republicans say that small businesses are insecure. the president saying 97% of small businesses would get this tax cut, thus, they would not be affected because they do not make over $250,000. in a nutshell, did the tax cuts work over the 11 years? did it help the economy? >> well, i think it helped a little bit. i think we were in a bad economy all the way around. what i saw was president obama again refusing to take any credit for anything bad that's happened over the last three 1/2 years. we are in a she economy. i know the answer is not to raise taxes. i know he wants to go after those evil 1%. they pay a total of 10%. if you go further they pay 70%. i don't think the answer is keep taxing them and have money put-back in the economy. >> the tax cuts existed for 11 years and you believe they helped a little bit. can you be more specific in how? and did they help the economy

grow? >> sure. absolutely. the math is pretty simple. for the folks that are the job creators, the less money they pay to the federal government they get to re-invest in their business and grow jobs. lots of different segments of the economy that has helped. as you're seeing this economy as we're slowly trying to get out of this really bad recession, those are the folks that we have to depend on to re-invest their dollars in their businesses, not in the federal government. >> so then how did we get in the situation we're in? i understand math. i'm not going to pretend that i'm einstein here. it was the slowest economic growth in half a century. we went into nearly a great deeggs mr. how is that economic progress and growth? >> a lot of it has to do with the federal government spending 4 trillion dollars in debt over the last 3 1/2 years over obama. massive government outreach trying to take over the health care system with obamacare. those are things that slow down business. if you want to get the business booming again, tax cuts are a good start. take capital gains down to zero.

get government off people's back. get the government out of small business and let them do what they do best which is grow jobs. right now we have a president and the federal government that is in their business all the time and they spend half their time trying to fill out reports and trying to take care of osha, epa, not their own business. i think that's the biggest problem. the tax cuts are a good start, but there's a lot of other pieces of this puzzle. >> keith? >> the problem, chip, is that we've tried this approach before and it hasn't worked. you know, if you look back to the clinton administration, we had a top marginal tax rate of 39.6%. that's higher than it is right now and yet we grew the economy. we reduced the federal deficit and we created 22 million new jobs. under the bush era, however, we've lowered the tax rate, the economy has begun to shrink and we had the wrors economic crisis since the great depression and what you're proposing and what mitt romney and the republicans are proposing, let's go right back to the failed economic

policies of the past decade and let's ignore the history of the previous decade when we were actually making progress. it doesn't make sense. it doesn't add up. and that solution is not going to sell to the american people. >> so, chip, you know, you can argue with opinion. you can argue with philosophy, but numbers at least in my grammar school class, in math, that's the wonderful thing about a number. it is absolute here. again, 98% of americans would get this tax cut saving them $2200. 97% of small businesses would get this tax cut because most small businesses do not make over $250,000. those are numbers presented today. can you look at that screen and tell me those numbers are not accurate? >> well, i'll tell you this, people that have more money in their pocket spend it usually or they save it. that's good for the economy. if you're going to do a tax cut, be fair. don't throw the class warfare card. have a tax cut for everybody. that's the best for everybody. more money in people's pockets

is good. don't play class warfare. >> except, chip, that the people who are most likely to spend the money are people who are lower and middle income. people who don't have the money to pay their mortgages, to pay their bills or to buy a new car or to buy a television when their television goes out, those are the people who will spend the money. the rich have benefitted. >> the people -- >> let me finish my statement. >> they're richer than the other 3%. those are people starting businesses and creating jobs for people who have jobs. >> the rich have benefitted the most over the course of the past decade. they're less likely to spend new money because they don't need it in order to make basic expenses. that's why you help the middle class. the people who you talk about income inequality in a moment ago. the richest 400 people in the country have more wealth than the bottom 150 million people in the country. and what you want to do is to continue that process of creating more class warfare by

making the rich wealthier and not doing anything to help the middle class. >> absolutely not. i just don't think because you're more successful you should be taxed more. your philosophy is -- >> that's the progressive income system. the progressive income tax system that's at play. >> chip, at the heart of this, certainly this notion of class warfare can be discussed, but the bottom line question, did the bush era tax cuts work over those 11 years? do you dispute somehow that you see something we did not see, that we had great growth and prosperity across the board? did we see that? >> we had a lot of problems throughout the last ten years. >> is the answer to my question, no? is the answer, no, chip? did they work? >> i think they worked, period. i think lower taxes are always better for this economy, no question. >> just not in the last 11 years it didn't work out so well. >> i would say it helped in the last 11 years. lower taxes is better for the economy. higher taxes is not the answer to grow the economy. it's just not true. >> except that it did in the

clinton administration. >> which i think speaks to the -- this is the core of the argument here and i think this is the point that many have made regarding whether you start at 250,000 or whether it's a million, the bottom line, republicans do not believe in adjusting their thoughts, period. the president has positioned himself on the opposite side of the arguments. as we like to say, the voter will decide. we did not decide that. coming up, robert -- >> are you suggesting that mitt romney's guilty of some kind of felony here? >> deale, what i'm suggesting i nobody has any idea. the only person with the tax returns is mitt romney. >> they launch an attack on mitt romney's offshore bank accounts. they are legal but is he being transparent? but in today's "news nation," getting to know you. an airline is giving ipads to crew members so they can google passengers. one traveller calls it creepy.

it's our gut check. what do they want to know about you on google. you can find my twitter page and let us know your thoughts. it's @tamarahall. ♪ i need a beauty and a beat who can make my life complete ♪ things have been a little strange. (sfx: sound of piano smashing) roadrunner: meep meep. meep meep? (sfx: loud thud sound) what a strange place. geico®. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance.

we're following breaking news right now. federal prosecutors are filing more charges in the murder of u.s. border patrol agent brian terry whose death is at the center of the "fast and furious" controver controversy. the new charges accuse five men of being involved in the shootout which ended with terry losing his life. federal officials say four of the men are fugitives right now. they are believed to be in mexico but, again, the breaking news this hour. they have filed new charges in this case. obviously tied to that "fast and furious" investigation. now back to politics and

democrats and their all out assault on mitt romney's refusal to release more of his tax returns. democrats went after governor romney demanding he lift the veil of secrecy regarding his offshore investments and other financial transactions. this morning things got heated on "morning joe." obama campaign advisor robert gibbs. >> are you suggesting that mitt romney is guilty of some kind of felony here? >> dale, what i'm suggesting is nobody has any idea because the only person with the tax returns is mitt romney. >> this wave of attacks against mitt romney, they're a distraction from the real discussion which is we're in a jobs crisis and we're not talking about jobs. >> release the tax returns. put all of this to rest. joining me now, "news nation" political columnist for the hill and keith is still with us. amy, will this get traction with people perhaps in the midwest? we know early on the people in

washington said the bain capital attacks wouldn't work. the polling shows that to be different. is this the same regarding these offshore accounts and more tax returns that could be released? >> oh, i think it definitely will get traction. i've spoken with conservatives who are worried about it, worried that the campaign is not realizing the impact it will have. you can make the argument if you work for mitt romney or you're the candidate himself against the bein attacks saying private equity is not a bad thing. there's a risk and reward. you save a lot of bad companies. you do create jobs. with this it's very hard to defend yourself against charges that you sent money overseas to gain the system so that you could pay taxes. he makes $57,000 a day on investment income and he pays a much lower rate than americans do on regular income. this is something that is not going to appeal to americans unless mitt romney comes out and says we must change our tax code because it is so gamable. i am one of the people who

learned how to make an end run around the system. i have my money in other places around the world to avoid taxes and so we have to fix this problem. that's not what he's doing and so people are going to react negatively to this. if the bain attacks were working these will work. >> so the conservative you've spoken with, a.b., who are concerned, are they not able to put pressure on governor romney especially after what we saw? we'll play a little bit in a second of the laundry list of democrats who were on the sunday morning programs hitting him from all sides on this. >> well, they understand that the romney campaign is under attack from all sides about the flip in the middle of the week on tax and penalty. they understand the mitt romney campaign is defending itself against the criticism of the establishment of the party that's encouraging him to fire people and they know that there's a course correction underway. they hope the romney campaign is going to consider answering

these attacks because this offshoring thing is not confusing. it's a straight populus argument that he has found a way to pay less than you and he knows how to game the system. unless they come out and really respond to this, if they think -- if they remain unconcerned, i think that these attacks will have a larger affect than the bain commercials. >> keith, let me play a little bit for you, i know you saw it, what the democrats had to say on the sunday morning programs. let's play it back to back. >> they ask themselves, why does an american businessman need a swiss bank account and secretive investments like that. >> i've never known a swiss bank account to build an american bridge, a swiss bank account to create american jobs. >> you get a swiss bank account to conceal what you're doing or you believe the swiss frank is stronger than the american dollar. >> that's just a little bit of it. keith, in response governor romney's team says president obama's attacks on mitt romney have been proven false time and

again. as job growth slows, manufacturing stalls and our economy sputters, president obama knows he can't make a legitimate run for president, so they're going to go personal. he's saying they won't go personal because things weren't great with this last jobs report. >> these aren't personal issues, these are real issues that the american people have a right to know. not only did he have a swiss bank account but he has accounts or money in the cayman islands. he also has this shell company that operated in bermuda. the mysteriously transferred to his wife the day before he was sworn in as governor of massachusetts. and people are wanting to know what is it about this money that you're not disclosing? why haven't you revealed your tax returns. why hasn't your father disclosed several years of his tax returns. i think the question is it goes to the core of who mitt romney is. and whether his policies he's advocating tax cuts for the wealthy are just designed to benefit himself or are they designed to help the american people. >> you know, it's interesting, a.b., robert gibbs pointed out

that romney gave 23 years of tax returns to john mccain's vetting committee when he wanted to be vp. he went on to say perhaps they see something in those returns over 23 years. can governor romney run the clock out on this or will you continue to have investigative reports and eventually, you know, the heat gets to the front door and he's got to do something more than release a statement from a spokesperson on this? >> i don't know if he will feel enough pressure to release them, but obviously the obama campaign watched what happened in the primary campaign when there was so much pressure on mitt romney to release them before the general election. he kept saying i'm going to deal with this in the general election campaign or maybe in april. he was forced to deliver. he only produced 2010 returns and i guess an estimate for 2011. that alone caused his numbers with independents and undecided republicans to take a nose dive. his approval from people earning $50,000 a year and less from

december from the time he released the tax returns in late winter went way down. that is because the subject turned to subjects like $57,000 a day in investment income. he knows if we see all of those years, this conversation is going to stay on that and democrats will pick up something for attack ads. i don't know if they will let up if he doesn't release them, but i couldn't tell you whether they've decided they're going to be forced to come through with that in the end. >> i think there's a bigger narrative, too, about who mitt romney is in terms of he's in the hamptons over the weekend, then goes to aspen. this is a guy who, forget about the car elevators, all of the other stuff, this is a guy the american people are still trying to figure out. i think these questions about his money have an impact on the way the american people will see him in the election. i think those are fair questions. i don't think he can push this off forever. even "the wall street journal" is starting to question what he's doing about this. these questions are going to come up again and again and again. >> keith, a.b., thank you very

much. i'm sure i'll see you both this weekend. coming up, the fbi warned americans you might have trouble getting online today. we'll have the latest about this malware that was supposed to keep people off the internet and in the dark. plus, house speaker john boehner on damage control after saying, quote, the american people aren't probably going to fall in love with romney. it's one of the things we thought you should know. follow the wings. [ female announcer ] you can make macaroni & cheese

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you could also cut corners by making it without 100% real cheddar cheese. but then...it wouldn't be stouffer's mac & cheese. just one of over 70 satisfying recipes for one from stouffer's. it was expected that tens of thousands of computer users could lose internet access today because of a doomsday virus, but as of at least right now security firms are reporting no significant outages. last year the fbi put a system in place to make sure people with the virus could still get online. that system was shut down last night leaving computers exposed. joining me now, digital lifestyle expert mario armstrong. thanks for joining us.

>> thank you for having me, tamara. >> absolutely. absolutely. so, okay, i'm seeing so many alerts about this. >> yes. >> to be honest with you, i didn't know if my computer would be affected by it. it sounds like from the reports we've gotten so far that all is well. is that the case? >> well, i certainly wouldn't say all is well just yet. i do think that the bulk of americans and bulk of people have been if not now certainly notified by this moment that they should be checking to remove this virus. the last thing that i've heard was that there were about 64,000 or so computers that still were infected and so these computers will not be able to go onto the internet. they'll be able to work, but when you try to go pull up a website it won't bring back that website to your computer. effectively kind of cutting you off from the internet. i don't think we're out of this. the bigger picture, tamara, is how come so many people were affected by this. >> right. >> this is not going to go away. this is one problem that was caught in one day. this type of situation with

these cyber criminals is happening all the time. >> as i understand it, at&t, time warner cable, for example, they set up their own service so their customers with infected computers could continue to access the internet. >> that's right. >> to your point, we're talking about this one issue today. >> right. >> we're always getting alerts and warnings that the computer could be compromised, don't open this e-mail. this is the new world order going on line. >> as we live in this digitally connected society, the cat's out of the bag. we use them for connecting our relationships, transferring funds, figuring out who we want to vote for, getting health information. technology is essential and the internet is the highway for that access of information. people need to be more defensive and more proactive about taking compare of their computers. this virus was really bad, tamara. it could disable anti-virus software. i can't even get mad at people that couldn't use anti-virus software effectively because this virus could disable that. people need to back up their data, their photos, their tax

returns, any of that important stuff. always back it up because it's not the computer that we really care about, it's the data. >> it's information. great pleasure having you on. >> good to see you. >> a leading conservative says governor mitt romney is still in trouble despite his 106th million dollar fundraising haul last month. president obama's had three disa int poing months but he's holding his own. if i were in the romney campaign, that would worry me. plus, what's being called a romney donors let them eat cake moment in the hamptons. it's part of the things in our today's first read. "news nation" read, things in the photos, me getting my first bike helmet and i don't know how i did not know how to put a helmet on. people with a machine. what ?

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new numbers out today show governor mitt romney is outraising president obama for a second month in the row. the campaign says it raised $106 million in the month of june along with the rnc. president obama and the dnc raised $71 million. . now some 200 protestors gathered at one of the romney fundraisers in the hamptons. an unknown donor who attended this said it was interesting in an interview. the donor was not identified but the individual was quoted in an article saying, my college kid, the baby-sitters, the nail ladies, everybody who's got the right to vote, they don't understand what's going on. i just think if you're lower income one, you're not as educated. two, they don't understand how it works. they don't understand the system and how it works. they don't understand the impact. joining me nbc's peter alexander. peter, make it clear, this was an unnamed romney donor.

this was not someone who worked for the campaign. >> sure. >> never theless, when you hear something like that, those protesters, by the way, many of them were occupy associated according to the informing, but when you read a quote like this, a donor going in shelling out a lot of money, it does make you wince a little bit if not a lot. >> it certainly does. a lot of republicans would say that's not the way we're trying to put this debate right now. i think they do agree in opposition to the president, they would argue, hey, we disagree with the president fundamentally. we disagree his plan in terms of extending the bush era tax cuts for the middle class. they say it needs to be done for the higher income earners, wealthier job creators. we need to help those people in an effort to build up this economy. as you speak about the numbers specifically, tamara, let's take a look at what they look like. in may, just about a month ago, the number in may, mitt romney with close to 77 million raised. president obama with 60 million

raised. the romney campaign has set as its goal about $800 million and given the fact that they have raised as much money as they did this past month and as much as we saw in the last month, that would equate to about 100 million between them and the rnc, the republican national committee. at this point they think that's a number they can hit. obviously they need help from grassroots donors as well. it can't just be the big money donations. >> this "usa today" poll shows that in a head-to-head match-up in swing states, president obama 47-45. when they talked about political ads, have they influenced you, 70% confirmed that it did. 10% saying that they haven't seen ads. 8% saying it changed their view. but i'm interested, peter, in what bill crystal said on fox yesterday pointing out despite the rough reports coming out for the president how he is leading. let's play bill crystal please. >> president obama's had three

disappointing months but he's holding his own. if i were in the romney campaign, that would worry me. i don't think you can beat an incumbent president even if the economy is slow. if 27% of the voters think you as the challenger don't have a clear plan for improving the economy. >> combined with the ads, people changing their minds and bill crystal and i guess in addition to the "wall street journal" scathing op ed, some scathing analysis from his team. >> he's taken a lot of heat from conservative commentators. the argument being there needs to be some specificity in terms of his economic plan. it's not enough to say i'm not president obama, you have to say what you are for. the argument has been coming from many people across the right and many organizations including "the wall street journal" with that editorial arguing and warning the romney campaign that they were potentially squaunderring, in the language of the new hampshire, squaunderring an historic opportunity. the romney folks say they're focused on the economy. their desire is to say anything

that's not a conversation about the economy is a distraction from what we're focused on. americans obviously want to hear more specifics as we go forward. i think there's increasing pressure for the romney folks to provide those. >> peter alexander, good to see you. congress is back to work today after a week long recess. already it is back to, did we ever leave it, bitter partisan politics. they're planning a series of votes in the coming weeks that one report says are designed to give democrats heartburn. first up, a plan to repeal president obama's health care law which was just upheld by the supreme court. kelly o'donnell joins us. kelly, congressman cummings was on with andrea mitchell today. he made the point, i think a lot of folks have made this, regarding this health care debate in comparison to perhaps movement, how to get people back to work. >> reporter: well, certainly republicans would make an argument about jobs linking that to the health care law and their yet another attempt to repeal it. it's the kind of thing that can pass the house because there are

enough republicans. their argument is that small businesses have uncertainty about the health carrey kwiermts und care requirements. the repeal mantra, repetition is a friend in politics, that is something that they're taking home to their districts and fighting for. by making this yet another vote putting democrats, especially those in districts where the health care law is not as popular, putting them on the hot seat. it is repeating the message that is the outline for this campaign. they believe it should be repealed. they believe it should be defunded. not wiwithstanding the supreme court's decision. >> there are some misgiving on re-litigating this with republicans. they believe now that they may seem out of touch, especially when party leaders have not pointed out an alternative. it was repeal, replace. now it's just repeal to your point if we're going to repetition. >> the house republicans did

have their own version of health care, things they could roll into more of an installment plan. they have some ideas but you're right, many people are saying that jobs is a singular focus. they would much rather make that argument including things like the tax cut issue that was brought up today by the president. should the bush era tax rates be extended? that's something they want to be talking about because they believe they should be extended for all income levels for one year. and they believe that you have to then look at the tax code. that's something where you do have agreement from democrats and republicans, an overhaul of the tax code. everyone knows that can't be accomplished in the months left before the election. and when we get to that, that will be quite a battle in and of itself. but those issues about jobs and how to frame something like this vote on health care will be a big focus and certainly people come at it from very different points of view. tamara? >> that's putting it mildly. thank you very much, kelly. great pleasure seeing you. thanks. the taliban is claiming responsibility today for a devastating attack on u.s. forces in afghanistan.

six u.s. troops were killed by a roadside bomb in eastern afghanistan sunday. officials say another american soldier was killed in a separate attack in the south. 21 afghan civilians and officers were killed by insurgent attacks as well. these attacks come a day after secretary of state hillary clinton announced the obama administration will ask congress to continue providing civilian assistance in afghanistan through the year 2017. that's two years after the last u.s. troops leave that country. secretary clinton made the pledge as some 70 countries gathered in tokyo to announce a four-year assistance program. they're promising to give $16 billion. in 2001 they gave $1 billion in civilian assistance. in 2010 it peaked to 4 billion. that's on top of the $100 billion cost of the war in afghanistan. joining me, jim frederick. jim, it's a great pleasure having you on again. it is incredible when you look

at these numbers and we talk about the deficit in this country, not having paid for these wars and the continued cost, as i report, more lives lost. our soldiers who are still there. >> right. there's a lot of skeptics who would say this is more good money after bad and what do we have to show for a decade of support. on the other hand, this is all part of a tapered withdrawal. it would be very hard to make the case that with the troops withdrawing, the economic support will end before the troops withdraw. past 2017 you'll make a hard case that these kinds of funding levels will continue because built into the plan is that they have to be anti-corruption measures. >> conditions attached to the aid. >> for the first time ever conditions attached. as you saw from the conference on sunday, nobody's been very specific about what the conditions are. >> why do you believe that's the case or what's the analysis on why that's the ka is? >> because they haven't figured it out yet. what routes of fied back loops there are. >> the money has to be placed on the table but even still the

conditions of providing this civilian aid lingers. >> yes. anti-corruption, corporate governance, equal rights for women, there's been no blueprint drawn up yet on what those milestones and what those markers for the release of funds will be. there's room here to be very skeptical. >> when we say civilian aid, what does that entail? is that building schools? you talked about the situation with the grave situation of women in that country. >> right. >> you've heard people move away from that being a concern. you remember at the beginning of this war that was as linked to our troops being in that country, how the women of that country were treated. >> oh, i know. a less reported aspect of this country was that a woman was executed by the taliban, probably earlier in june. that video has just gone viral over the past couple of days. so, yes, there's no question the administration has stepped back from the human rights issue but in terms of corruption, corporate governance, police,

militia, those are all things that you can put measures in place and there could be an expectation among the international community that you have to abide by certain anti-corruption laws. >> we'll see what the conditions or guidelines linked to this latest billions in aid provides. >> yes, we'll have to see what those are because they haven't been forthcoming. >> always a great pleasure to see you. up next, details on "the new york times" report that cell phone companies are seeing a spike in government requests for customer records. you know that raises new privacy concerns as always, but first there's a lot going on today that we thought you should know. did you hear what house speaker john boehner said about mitt romney at a fundraiser in west virginia. someone asked boehner can you make me love mitt romney? and his response? i wasn't elected to play god. the american people probably aren't going to fall in love with mitt romney. i'll tell you this, 95% of the people that show up to vote in november are going to show up and vote for or against barack

obama. the hill quotes gop insider as romney and boehner's relationship as getting stronger recently. reaction is pouring in after republican congressman dennis mcconner abruptly resigned friday. the publisher and inside michigan politics calls it the ultimate disaster. the joint free press calls it a loss for michigan. he resigned after gathering enough valid signatures. 1,000 signatures were found to be fake or duplicate. alan west, he's make another controversial statement, this one actually linking social security to slavery. yesterday he accused the president of making americans dependent on social programs. >> just this past month the 85,000 went on social security or disability as opposed to creating jobs. we're creating economic

dependence which is a form of modern 21st century slavery. here it is, the history making wedding picture of congressman barney frank and his long-time partner james reedy. this is the first time a sitting congressman has entered into a same-sex marriage. very handsome couple. just thought you should know. ♪ [ male announcer ] you've reached the age where you don't back down from a challenge. this is the age of knowing how to make things happen. so, why let erectile dysfunction get in your way? talk to your doctor about viagra. 20 million men already have. ask your doctor if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take viagra if you take nitrates for chest pain; it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. side effects include headache, flushing, upset stomach, and abnormal vision. to avoid long-term injury, seek immediate medical help for an erection lasting more than four hours.

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is this part of your life? freestyle lite test strips? why, are they any... beep! wow, that hardly needs any blood! yeah... and the unique zipwik tab targets the blood and pulls it in. so easy. freestyle lite needs just a third the blood of onetouch ultra. really? yep, which is great for people who use insulin and test a lot. max and i are gonna run out and get them right now. or you can call or click today and get strips and a meter free. test easy. at least 79 people now confirmed dead from a brutal heat wave. triple digit temperatures in the last few weeks have contributed to what is now being called the hottest first six months of any year on record. 3,000 heat records were set in the last week alone. that's incredible. things are though cooling off a bit. there's still some extreme weather to come. weather channel meteorologist heather joins us from atlanta.

3,000 heat records were set in the last week alone. >> reporter: and a lot of us are feeling it. add to that after the weekend before this past one so many people lost their power because of the derecho. we are going to be looking at some relief. it is still summertime. it's still going to be very hot. the numbers are showing that. we still have temperatures in the upper 80s. pittsburgh. the overall trend is that these temperatures are cooler. they have returned to average. it's still summertime. the jet stream has dipped down. our front has delivered that cooler air. and as far as what we will see in the coming days, you can see, yes, we'll have those temperatures in the mid to upper 80s in a lot of places in the mid-atlantic and the northeast. it is a lot better than seeing temperatures in the 90s, in the triple digits like we have been seeing. as you were mentioning, all the thousands of records that we

have set. so there is relief in the east. now the flip side is we're actually going to find some much hotter temperatures somewhere else. that will be in the western part of the country. in the west they're going to experience that area of high pressure overhead and unfortunately that's going to lead to some very uncomfortable conditions for them. >> heather, thank you very much. greatly appreciate the update from you. cell phone surveillance is on the rise. look at our stories around the news of the nation. cell phone companies have revealed that law enforcement agencies routinely ask them for user information. according to the "new york times", companies like at&t and verizon responded to 1.3 million such requests last year. the agencies asked for information like text messages, caller locations and call logs. the wireless carriers say they provided some of the data in response to warrants but also complied with many other requests if the police said it was an emergency. a kayaker in colorado caught

this amazing video. as she ran off from a recent wild fire turned this river totally black. the high park fire burned for three weeks before being fully contained. it was the second most destructive fire. that's amazing video. here's one we just heard about, tom cruise and katie holmes, they have reached a divorce settlement. that was fast. an attorney representing katie holmes confirmed an agreement has been signed. he also thanks cruise's attorney for their professionalism and diligence. details of the settlement obviously not made public. our news of the nation gut check is up next. one airline is giving their crew ipads to google passengers. the airline says the staff will be able to give them more customized service if they know you're a v.i.p. one traveller said it's creepy. what does your gut tell you? you can join the "news nation" on facebook. that's our facebook page on the screen it is @news station.

@"news nation." aspirin i have a better chance of living a healthy life.

time now for the news. british airways come being under fire by some customers for a tactic it claims will provide more efficient service to its flyers. the airline is using ipads to google personal information on a select group of first and business class passengers, information that includes what you like to drink, newspaper prefr preferences, and when you traveled. can't they google you on anything. they'll receive messages about specific passengers. it's part of british airways program of know me. it wants more personalized service by, quote, putting a face to a name. one passenger calls it creepy, but what does your gut tell you? do you agree with this motion,

passengers who feel uncomfortable with british airlines to give you a level of service. cast your vote. that does it for this edition of "news nation." i'm tamara hall. "the cycle" is up next. man: there's a cattle guard, take a right. do you have any idea where you're going ? wherever the wind takes me. this is so off course. nature can surprise you sometimes... next time, you drive. next time, signal your turn. ...that's why we got a subaru. love wherever the road takes you.

president bush wants to extend some of the bush tax cuts but not for millionaires. >> i'm s.e. cupp. i'm steve kornacki. i'm crystal ball. young girls forced into sex trafficking. it's happening here in the u.s. there's a new national campaign to stop that. >> all that and my thoughts on what mitt romney must tell black america. "the cycle" for monday, july 9th starts right now.

all right. the gang's all here. let's take it to the table. crystal, doesn't it seem like the president is trying to put the gop in position to defend the richer americans the way he's defending the bush tax cuts issue? >> yes. he's got the tax centering on his time at bain, his attacks on the money in the swiss cayman islands. everyone under 250,000 or less, why don't we go ahead with that and then we can talk about whether for people on the higher end of the income scale we really want to move forward for a tax cut for them that would cost $850 billion over the next ten years and is the least effective form of stimulus according to the congressional budget office. >> i want to hear a little bit from the preside